How many implosions?

In light of the latest late-inning implosion for the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, I decided that it’d be a good perspective check to find out just how many of these late-inning blowups have occurred this season.

Last night’s implosion was fairly typical of this season, but any Orioles’ fan — even if they’ve come to expect these kinds of disappointments — can’t be totally numb to this. No baseball fan can be numb to this. The Orioles looked like they were in prime position to win just their third series of the season. Up, 5-2, going into the eighth inning, starter Brad Bergesen was mowing down the Oakland Athletics. But he allowed the first two hitters on base in the top of the eighth, which chased him from the game.

I didn’t have a problem with the move by manager Dave Trembley to take out Bergesen, even if Bergesen was only at 93 pitches. He had just allowed two straight hits and had given the Orioles a fine effort to that point. Trembley has to be able to trust that his bullpen can hang onto the lead.

Alas, the bullpen didn’t hang onto the lead. Jason Berken came into the game to face one batter, whom he got out. Berken was then taken out in favor of left-hander Mark Hendrickson, who would face the next two batters, both of whom were lefties. This, I didn’t understand, maybe because I’m always opposed to using three pitchers in one inning or having a pitcher come in to face one batter for matchup purposes. It just seems like the more pitchers a team uses in a game, the better the chances are that one of the pitchers doesn’t have his best stuff that day and ends up giving up the game.

In his post-game presser, though, I felt like Trembley did have somewhat good reasoning for bringing in Hendrickson. Trembley said that he brought in Hendrickson because Berken had never been in such a pressurized situation late in the game as Hendrickson had. He also said that Hendrickson provided the lefty/lefty matchup, and since Berken was a fly ball pitcher, it left him vulnerable to the game-tying homer.

Of those reasons, the latter made the most sense to me, even though Berken was in the same danger of giving up a game-tying homer with the batter he was assigned to face. But the lefty/lefty argument, to me, is neutralized given Berken’s batting average against lefties (.194). Hendrickson’s batting average against lefties is .342. Given the stark contrast in the numbers, who cares if it’s a lefty/lefty matchup. The argument that Hendrickson had more experience in that kind of situation is silly to me, because Berken has to get that pressurized late-inning experiences at some point — and what’s keeping Trembley from letting Berken get that experience right now? The Orioles were 17 games under .500 at that point, for God’s sake.

Anyway, Hendrickson ended up getting one out, giving up two inherited runners, and leaving the bases loaded with two outs at a 5-4 score for the next reliever, Cla Meredith. Hendrickson fell victim to two really bad luck grounders — one off his shin, and one that would have ended the inning with the Orioles up by two runs, but the ball took a vicious hop and handcuffed shortstop Cesar Izturis.

Meredith, who has been getting hit by everyone in the majors lately, gave up a rocket double when he entered the game, which made the score, 7-5, Oakland, which turned out to be the game’s final score. But look, I can question Trembley all I want. If his relievers do what they’re paid to do and Hendrickson doesn’t fall victim to some very bad luck, the Orioles get out of the eighth inning and have a chance to close it out in the ninth.

So how often has this happened this season? It seems like this has happened in every loss. Let’s take a look at this from Day 1 of the season. I’ll disclude tight save opportunities. It doesn’t seem fair to lump a one-run blown save in with an implosion like Thursday night.

Our first implosion comes on the first Sunday of the season against the Toronto Blue Jays. Having started the season 1-4, it was important for the Orioles to salvage the series against the Blue Jays before hitting a brutal part of their schedule.

Kevin Millwood’s start turned out to be a precursor of how his season would turn out for the first two months of the season. Millwood had mowed down the Blue Jays for 7.2 innings, giving up no runs and only three hits to that point. He had a 2-0 lead. 

Then, Miguel Tejada, in his sixth game as a third baseman, booted a routine John McDonald grounder that would have ended the inning. The next batter, Jose Bautista homered to tie the game, and Alex Gonzalez homered right after him. Three unearned runs and Millwood departed. Matt Albers got out of the inning without further damage, but Meredith gave up two runs in the ninth. 5-2 loss for the Orioles.

The Orioles’ second implosion seems as though it occurred on April 13 at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. Brian Matusz was breezing along in the first seven innings, giving up no runs and only two hits. With a 3-0 lead, Matusz got the first out of the eighth inning, but the roof caved in. He allowed four straight singles and was removed from the game having given up one run and leaving the bases loaded.

Jim Johnson then took over and got the next out of the inning via a pop-up off the bat of Ben Zobrist, but with a chance to get out of the inning with the team having given up just the one run, he allowed a game-tying single from Evan Longoria.

Will Ohman then replaced Johnson and gave up two inherited runs to hand a 5-3 lead to Tampa Bay. Luke Scott would eventually hit a game-tying pinch hit homer in the bottom of the inning, but Matt Albers would then allow a game-winning, three-run homer to Carlos Pena in extras after consecutive walks to begin the 10th inning.

Our next implosion comes at Fenway Park on April 24, when the Orioles – after Matusz allowed the first two hitters on base in the seventh before departing  — allowed six runs in the seventh inning, turning a 3-1 lead quickly into a 7-3 deficit. The Orioles had a valiant comeback attempt in the ninth inning, but ultimately fell, 7-6.

The next implosion is detailed thoroughly here. Matusz is again the starting pitcher that gets victimized, this time in the form of an eight-run ninth inning from the Cleveland Indians courtesy of Alfredo Simon and Meredith.

And then we have yesterday’s implosion. So that’s five legitimate late inning implosions in roughly two months of the season, pro-rating to 15 of these types of losses for the whole season. I’d imagine that for a contending team, this type of loss happens once, maybe twice (maybe never), for the entire season.

As far as saves are concerned, the Orioles have managed more blown saves than they have successful saves, as they Orioles have just converted nine of 19 save opportunities, and that doesn’t even include but one of the above implosions.

Every Orioles’ fan understands why this has occurred — injuries to key pieces in the bullpen, and ineffectiveness by those of whom are left.

$12 million closer Mike Gonzalez was brought in by Andy MacPhail, who stated that one of the reasons for investing so highly in a closer was that he wanted to assure that his young pitchers, when in line for a win, would get that victory (tell that to Matusz). Gonzalez blew the save in the season and home openers, was put on the disabled list due to shoulder problems, and will be in rehab in Sarasota for the foreseeable future. His shoulder injury undoubtedly affected his ability to get outs for the few innings that he pitched.

Johnson, the next-in-line closer, was ineffective as a closer and was eventually put on the shelf due to an elbow injury, an injury that was probably affecting him while he was still pitching. Johnson was universally considered to be the Orioles’ most reliable reliever over the past handful of seasons.

Koji Uehara, once a closer in Japan and considered to be a key piece of the bullpen in spring training, couldn’t start the season with the team (hamstring injury). Once Uehara was in the team’s bullpen, he didn’t last long (elbow injury).

After Gonzalez and Johnson went down, the Orioles called up Simon from Triple-A Norfolk and immediately was inserted as the closer, a position where he saved six of seven games. Simon then injured his hamstring this past Sunday in Washington covering first base.

I’ve never seen so many key injuries to a bullpen, and it’s a legitimate reason for the team’s failings late in a game. It’s not an excuse — these are facts. The four relief pitchers that went down were the four most important pieces to the Orioles’ bullpen this year.

That, combined with the ineffectiveness of the relievers puts the Orioles where they are now. First of all, Gonzalez and Johnson were extremely ineffective when they were pitching, saving a combined two games in their seven opportunities. Of the relievers currently in the bullpen, Hendrickson, Meredith, Albers and Alberto Castillo have all been ineffective, at least at times. Meredith is currently getting lit up by everyone, Albers and Hendrickson have been very inconsistent, and Castillo has been disappointing in his brief time with the Orioles this season. Only Will Ohman and Berken have been consistently effective out of the bullpen.

When the Orioles signed Gonzalez, MacPhail mentioned – in the same breath as preaching the importance of the team’s young pitchers getting the victories that they deserve – that there’s nothing more dispiriting to a team than losing games that they should be winning.

And if we didn’t know that before, we sure do now.